When the so-called New Market – the segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange designed for the trade of high-tech shares – started in March 1997, there was a sense that a new era was dawning, as well as a mood of euphoria pervading the entire stock exchange landscape of Germany. A large number of small-scale investors who had until then stayed away from the stock market invested in shares.
When Deutsche Telekom looked to increase its capital through the issuance of new shares – the T-Aktie – in 2000, a major advertising campaign attempted to lure small investors by presenting the T-Aktie as a ‘share of the people’.
